


A Change of Heart

by EyeOfTheFates



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Stalking, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Neglect, Panic Attacks, Performing Arts, Rare Pairings, implied past hidan/sakura, sakura needs self-confidence, sasori needs a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:00:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EyeOfTheFates/pseuds/EyeOfTheFates
Summary: Sakura is trapped at a fine arts school where she doesn't belong. Top of her class, can Sasori find her the confidence to be her own person?
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Sasori
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Just the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This story was initially started over 10 years ago when I was in middle school over on good ol' fanfiction.net, so I've decided to revamp the story and write it all out because if you look it up over there...it's tragic.

An alarm clock blaring obnoxiously out at 3 o’clock in the morning may not be the ideal wake up for most high school students but it worked out best for “Straight A Sakura Haruno”. She quickly smashed the button on the top of her digital clock, successfully silencing the aggressive beeping and possibly breaking yet another one of the sleep-disturbing monstrosities. Sakura rolled out of bed with a groan, rubbing the sleep from her tired emerald eyes.

**“I want to go back to bed"** Sakura’s inner voice moaned in protest to yet another early morning. 

_ "This is the only way to stay on top of my classwork,"  _ Sakura tried to reason with herself, with little success. 

**“It’s not like we actually need to be top of our class you know. It’s not like anyone cares.”** The intrusive Inner shot back nastily. 

“ _ Mom and Dad care, now let me work.”  _ Sakura sighed, sometimes she actually believed she was going crazy, arguing with a voice locked inside her head, but it wasn’t anything she was overly concerned about so she never bothered to bring it up to her family, they had more important things to worry about.

Sluggishly, Sakura turned on the pink desk lap that perched precariously on her cluttered desk next to her bed. 

“Time to finish this paper.” She grumbled to herself, chewing the end of a mechanical pencil trying to think of a good way to end her essay comparing and contrasting permanent art to ephemeral pieces. Personally, Sakura saw the beauty and uniqueness of both styles and appreciated them equally which helped her not be biased about the project at hand. 

With a huff, stumped on a decent conclusion, Sakura picked up her rose gold phone from the ground where it lay charging beside her bed and was greeted by the four faces that had been with her for as long as she could remember, her friends Hinata, Naruto, Ino, and TenTen. With a small smile, she realized there still weren’t any notifications that her parents had tried to call, but that wasn’t unusual. They  _ were  _ busy running a company after all. 

Defeated by the last sentence of an essay, Sakura heaved herself over to her mahogany upright wardrobe that opens outward, she haphazardly grabbed for a form-fitting white crop top with cap sleeves and red shorts. She grabbed for her black converses, before thinking better of it and slipped on her white hightops with the red trim. Sakura took a moment to examine herself in her floor-length mirror and sighed deeply while brushing her pink hair that fell to her mid-back. She always felt a bit like a doll when she got dressed in the morning, none of the clothes she owned were ever her own choice. Her parents picked most of the clothing in her closet, they  _ insisted  _ that as the heir to a fashion company, she had to always look her best. She reached up to the hook on the one side of the wardrobe door and grabbed her paint-splattered student ID hanging uselessly on its bubblegum pink lanyard. 

Sakura was a Junior at Konoha High School of the Arts and top of her class, it didn’t make her the most popular girl in school, but her four friends were all she ever felt she needed- and sometimes just a little bit more than she needed. The school was one of the best in the nation, with programs that created the most incredible artists of almost any denomination. The school was known for creating incredibly talented people that went on to gain worldwide recognition. She had studied hard in middle school to be able to get in just as her parents had before her. 

Sakura sighed deeply plopping back down to finish her essay. She always ended up finishing her homework the morning before it was due, but as long as she managed to get it in on time and with the best product she could, that was enough for her. 

After finally putting an ending to the essay, she put it in her watercolor binder and slid it easily into her black canvas messenger bag. Sakura walked over to her private bathroom attached to her large bedroom and started the daunting task of her morning face routine. She quickly washed her face and applied eyeliner, mascara, and a tinted pink lip gloss before deciding she looked human enough to leave the house. 

She walked the mahogany stairs and made her way to the dark kitchen. It was still early so the natural light wasn’t ready to peak through the large windows behind the sink. Sakura saw a slight shadow on the wall and thought it might be her father drinking a cup of coffee in the dark, as he often would. 

“Good morning!” Sakura exclaimed excitedly, but her excitement was quickly quelled when she noticed that what she thought was her father's figure was nothing more than a poseable mannequin she had left out while practicing human form. Sakura shrugged off the disappointment quickly, her parents were busy. She made her way over to the steel refrigerator and realized it was almost empty, only filled with a half a bottle of ketchup, a teaspoon worth of butter, Sriracha sauce, soy sauce, and some pretty questionable milk. She closed the door disappointed and reached for the cabinet up top to see 2 last pieces of bread and a jar of pickles and another of black olives. Sakura grabbed for one of the pieces of bread and started making a buttered piece of toast to get her going for the day. 

_ “I’ll just get lunch at school. I need to check the bank account to make sure I have money in it.”  _ Sakura thought mildly. 

**"Maybe if they cared about you, you would have food in the house?"** Sakura's intrusive inner replied nastily. 

“ _ They are just busy. They’ll be home soon to restock the cabinet. It’s no big deal.”  _ Sakura reasoned back. 

“ **We haven’t heard from them in a week!!”** Sakura’s inner voice argued, but Sakura didn’t feel like continuing the conversation. She thought back to her last call with her parents. 

They called her last week to check-in which was nice. No asking about what her grades were or if she’d designed anything for them yet, and they didn’t tell her when they would be back from wherever they happened to be, but she hoped it would be soon. Her parents were heads of the major fashion company Shippuden and traveled a lot, but she didn't mind, she loved seeing what they were able to create. Her father was a master tailor and worked wonders with suits and pants, her mother was a master seamstress and has dressed some of the most high profile clients for red carpets or even just day-to-day wear. Her parents really were incredible. 

Everyone at Konoha High School of the Arts was expected to excel in one form of art or another. Her parents were expecting her to become a fashion designer like both of them to take over the family company, but that just never felt completely right to her. Sakura had a love for painting that her parents tried to squash years ago, but since they had realized it was useless, they began to allow her to paint the models and new fashion ideas onto canvas for them whenever they were home. 

A quick glance at her side table clock told her it was 6 o’clock in the morning.

As Sakura started on her half-hour trek to the campus, Sakura started out the large doors, being careful to lock them and made her way to school. 

She took in the scenery around her. She lived in Upper Konoha where most of the houses are huge and every house had its own unique personality with most homes having extravagant topiaries or neon paint covering the exterior. They all looked beautiful in their own respect like someone had thrown their love straight onto the walls of a home. She watched as the landscape morphed and the school's campus came into view. 

Unfortunately for her, the rain was also beginning to trickle down from the dark sky. Sakura ran the rest of the way to take cover under the metal awning at the very front of the school. It was an open-air campus so unfortunately for her, she was going to have to go out and brave the rain to get to her first-period class, but for now, she was going to stay under her temporary shelter. 

_ "My hair must be a wreck, I hope Ino still has a hairbrush in her locker I can borrow."  _ Sakura thought with a sigh.

What was she thinking Ino  _ always  _ had a brush ready and waiting in her locker if she forgot to bring one to school. Ino was the head of the cheer squad and always 'had to look gorgeous for the cameras' or so she said. Sakura smiled at the thought of her vain blond friend. 

Sakura looked down at her phone and realized it was only 6:30 and since classes started at 8, no one would be here for at least an hour. Ino always had to be 'fashionably late,' Hinata has to wait for her cousin Neji to wake up to drive her and Ten-Ten has karate class. 

_ "I guess I’d better start on this year's winter collection."  _ Sakura grimaced internally. She made her way carefully over to the wooden gazebo that was in the center of the school, careful to stay underneath the metal awnings all the way there to avoid getting any wetter than she already was. Sakura loved going to the gazebo to draw, write, or sketch. Most people ignored it favoring the other more flashy buildings or lounges that covered the school both indoors and out but she loved the rustic feel of the chipped white wood and intricate latticework that surrounded the space, giving off the illusion of privacy while still being in the center of a large campus. 

She plopped down on one of the 4 benches that lined the walls and pulled out her large black sketchbook and started taking to the task of drawing out the elongated and slender features of the models so she could begin working on sketching out a theme for this year's winter collection. 

It was the beginning of August and classes had only just started two weeks before but her parents insisted that the styles must be completed to get to the sewing team before the beginning of the previous season’s runway launch. Sakura had never really cared much for fashion but she did have a talent for it thanks to her parents, and they told her that if she made good designs for them, they would use her on the runway so she could start to take on a role in the company. She wanted to please her parents, but she just never quite agreed with their stylistic decisions. For the Fall collection, they wanted something very avant-garde and all asymmetric but still keeping the feeling of fall with the pumpkin orange’s, mustard yellow, cream whites, and dull greens. The collection was called “Pumpkin Spice Latte,” if it couldn’t have gotten any more stereotypical. The company was called Shippuden or Hurricane in English. Her mother had chosen it to make the company seem like an oncoming storm but lately, Sakura felt her parents were edging too much on the side of a gentle breeze rather than the drama of a Category 5. 

The slamming of a car door snapped her out of her thoughts and she whipped her head toward the front of the school through the white lattice hoping to see one of her friends walking toward her, but she was disappointed to see a shock of blood-red hair huddled under the front awning. On closer inspection, Sakura noticed a white schedule gripped in his hands and assumed he must be new. The rain was coming down harder and she noticed he was shivering in the rain so she called out to the red hair student. 

“Hey, you won’t get wet in here,” Sakura shouted while waving her arm out the front of the gazebos only entrance. 

He appeared to hesitate for a moment, shifting slightly from one foot to the other as if he were debating on something before walking quickly into the gazebo with her. 

Now that she could see him a bit better, she took in his dark appearance; black skinny jeans with artistic rips starting just above mid-thigh, black Doc Martin shoes, and a skin-tight black tank top covered by a black mesh shirt. She also noted that he was wearing thick black leather wristbands on both arms with a matching leather choker around his neck and black eyeliner smudged around deep golden eyes and an eyebrow piercing that looks like two black balls; one above and one below his left eyebrow. 

“ **He’s hot as hell!”** Sakura’s inner self felt the need to interject. Sakura squashed down that voice before realizing she was staring and quickly introduced herself. 

"Hi, my name is Sakura Haruno, what's your name?" She asked with a bright smile and an outstretched hand. 

"Sasori Akasuna, I'm new," he muttered quietly, hesitantly accepting the outstretched hand. She noticed briefly the tattoo that ran up his right forearm but didn’t get a close enough look to identify it. 

"I noticed that, do you need some help finding your classes?" She asked, trying to be helpful while plopping down on the bench again with her sketchpad. 

"I don’t need your charity," He replied lazily.

"Didn’t assume you did, I just thought it might be nice to give the new guy directions rather than letting you wander around half the school trying to find your first period, but, if you want to spend most of the day lost, be my guest. The school has twenty-five different buildings, best of luck," she replied with a shrug, she met his lazy look with one of her own and reopened her sketchbook to try to tackle a winter theme again. 

He looked away from her and muttered something under his breath, taking a seat on the opposite bench and glaring down at his schedule. After a few tense moments, he quietly mumbled behind his schedule, not looking at Sakura. 

“Sorry, can’t hear you over the rain, what was that Mr. Akasuna?” Sakura asked with a slight smirk. 

Sasori whipped his head to glare daggers at her, it was a little intimidating but she wasn’t about to let that sway her. He gritted his teeth and ground out, “Please help me find my first class, Haruno.” 

"Absolutely!” she hopped off of her bench with a bright smile and sat down beside the darkly clad teen. She glanced quickly at his schedule and noticed they had a few of the same classes, first period being one of them. 

"Okay, so we have the same first class with Kakashi Sensei, he teaches Paint and Sketch Art, I’ll walk you there,” Sakura explained with a smile. 

Sasori stared at her with distrusting eyes and furrowed brow, he frowned lightly then nodded his head as if accepting her offer to walk him. 

"Just consider me your personal welcoming committee to Konoha High School of the Arts!” She smiled at him again but he nodded, seeming to have trouble holding her eye. She shrugged it off and looked down at the time again, 7:56, classes would be starting soon. 

“Hey, the bell is gonna ring soon, we had better start heading to the first period," she smiled brightly while standing up and holding out a hand to help him up as well. 

He rose to his feet, avoiding her outstretched hand he rose to his feet, which she realized he was easily 6”0 and towered over her tiny 5”3 frame. She looked up at him with a kind smile and turned back to grab her bag and shove her sketchbook back inside.

She realized he was waiting for her to lead the way, so with a bright smile, she walked out into the rain and rushed for the nearest awning, making her way to the class which was only two buildings down from them. The building itself looked like it had been painted by 20 different artists, with sections of different paint styles and themes ranging from comic book heroes all the way to paranormal and horrifying. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to notice him admiring mismatched artwork on the building. She smiled to herself and continued leading the way in companionable silence.

Sakura had a feeling this would be a very interesting year. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back for Chapter Two!! Drop a comment down below and let me know how you're enjoying the story thus far!!

Sakura walked Sasori into the artistically painted building right up to the second door on the right and noticed there was a bucket of white paint balanced precariously on top of the slightly open door. 

_ “Typical,”  _ Sakura thought with a sigh, she reached up and grabbed the can of paint carefully without moving the door and was easily able to slip in with Sasori close behind her. She held the paint can up at eye level and cocked a pink eyebrow at the sheepish looking blonde standing at the front of the room. 

“Hey, Sakura! I, uh, didn’t know we had the same first period together!” The blonde spoke sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with a wide grin. 

“Naruto! You know Kakashi Sensei won’t be here until at least 15 minutes after the final bell! Do NOT cover students in paint! You don’t need detention the third week of school!” Sakura chastised while pointing a threatening finger at the now terrified blonde.

“Whoa whoa Sakura, don’t worry! I would have cleaned it up! I swear--wait who's that??” Naruto hurriedly explained before noticing the red hair that was moving toward a back corner seat near the window, looking bored of the scene the two were created at the front of the room. 

“Oh! This is Sasori, he’s new. Sasori, this is Naruto Uzumaki, one of the best action artists Konoha High has ever seen, ” Sakura explained, beaming brightly at her long time friend. She’s always been proud of how far he was able to come and grow even with his grades being less than acceptable in her opinion. 

“What’s action art?” Sasori asked mildly, his elbows were propped up on the desk he had selected, resting his head on his palm. 

“ **He looks bored,”** Sakura's inner critiqued and Sakura had to squish her back down again. 

“Splashing paint on a canvas, or in my case, doing martial arts with paint, it’s linked to expressionism but it’s all about the act of painting rather than the finished product, but I gotta say, my finished products are pretty amazing. Believe it!” Naruto said proudly, his whisker shaped scars just highlighting his cheerful demeanor. 

“That sounds interesting,” Sasori responds honestly. He turns away and pulls out a notebook from his bag and starts to sketch something, obviously done with the conversation. 

Sakura looked at him curiously for a moment, before the bell rang out loudly and the three realized the class was almost full of students. Naruto replaced the bucket of white paint to the top of the door and returned to his seat in the first chair closest to the door. Sakura made her way to the only seat left at the two-person table in the back corner next to the window beside Sasori, Sakura made her way back quickly and slid into her seat.

"So, where is Kakashi Sensei?” asked a blue-haired girl in the front of the room.

“Oh he’ll be here soon, don’t you worry about that!” Naruto assured everyone with a dark grin and a slightly evil laugh.

About 15 minutes later, the door swung open quickly and the bucket of white paint splashed unceremoniously down on the tall silver-haired teacher. The splash was magnificent and everyone realized that beneath the top layer of white paint was also silver, lilac, and black, creating an impressive and beautiful pattern that encased Kakashi Sensei.    
  
“That’s what you get for being late, Sensei! Believe it!” Naruto cheered from his seat as the rest of the class erupted in laughter. 

“Kakashi Sensei is Naruto’s uncle, and he’s never been on time to a single class in all the years he’s been teaching. Naruto loves to prank him, and honestly, so do most students. Thankfully, Kakashi just goes with it and usually accepts it as just another form of self-expression.” Sakura leaned over to explain to Sasori who was currently sitting rigidly in his chair staring at the paint covered sensei. 

“At my old school, if we had done something like this, we would have died,” Sasori responded to her quietly. Sakura giggled a little at him, but noticed the rigid expression and tried to lighten his mood by motioning back to the front of the class where Kakashi Sensei was beginning to speak. 

“Okay, okay, you’ve all had your fun and we’ve now seen a bit of Naruto’s action art in action. Sorry, I’m late everyone, the craziest thing happened, I was helping this old lady with her groceries and--” Kakashi Sensei had begun to explain his tardiness but his entire classroom erupted with variations of the phrase “no one cares” and “lazy sensei”. 

Sakura saw Sasori flinch a bit at the yelling class before scribbling something into his sketchbook. 

_ He sure is quiet...I guess he’s just nervous _ . Sakura reasoned internally. She couldn’t help but glance over every few moments to the tense teen whose eyes seemed to stay dutifully on his sketchbook. 

The class finally settled down enough for Kakashi Sensei to start the lesson he had planned, which consisted of the entire class staring at an oil lamp trying to sketch it without looking at what they were drawing. It was an interesting exercise to help them link together their eyes to their hands. Sakura was pretty proud of the slightly round oil lamp she was able to create and with only a few minor modifications, the lamp looked just like the example.

Sakura only barely caught a glance at Sasori’s oil lamp but was already stunned by his talent. His lamp looked real enough to lift off the page. 

The rest of the class went fairly uneventfully and finally, the bell rang and the class began to pack up and head to their next class. Sakura turned to Sasori and he looked up at her lazily, an eyebrow cocked as if asking her where he needs to go next. 

“Um, can I see your schedule again?” Sakura asked with an outstretched hand toward Sasori. He looked at her hand before looking back up at her slowly with that same bored expression and cocked eyebrow. 

“Creative Writing with Asuna,” Sasori said slowly, with no indication of reaching for his bag or schedule. He just stared at her with his amber eyes impatiently as she gathered her thoughts. 

“I have a class near there, I’ll take you there but you should probably show me your schedule so I can show you how to get to the rest of your classes.” Sakura finally responded to the silent question. 

“Nah, I think it’s more fun to just let you show me where I have to go. You did tell me to consider you ‘my personal welcoming committee’ this morning, did you not?” Sasori responded, rising from his seat a bit unsteadily and balanced a hand on the table while smirking at her like he had won, and in a sense, he had. 

“Fine, then let's go, I don’t want to be late to my Art History class.” She turned and began walking away, feeling him close behind her like a shadow. 

She guided him to his next course and promised to meet him outside of the door as soon as she was out of her class which was only down the hallway from his own. She walked in and was delighted to see the three people she had been hoping to see all day.

“Hinata! TenTen! Ino! Where the heck were you guys been all day?” Sakura shouted happily at the three girls sitting in the back corner, she could also see a saved window seat which was undoubtedly set aside for her as it normally was when the four of them were lucky enough to have classes together. 

The blue-haired Hinata was the first to spin around in her chair with a wide smile toward Sakura and waved her over to join the group. 

“Sorry, we were all running late. Ino was having an emergency this morning and needed both of us to help her answer a text from Sasuke.” TenTen filled Sakura in apologetically. Sakura usually wasn’t a part of messaging Ino’s boyfriend since she had never actually dated and her friends-rightfully-didn’t trust any advice she might try to provide, but she did still feel a little hurt at the exclusion. Sakura turned to Ino with a raised eyebrow and she noticed the faintest puffiness underneath her perfectly matched foundation beneath her eyes. 

“What happened hun?” Sakura asked gently, noticing her friend's distress. 

“Oh, Sakura it’s horrible! Sasuke broke up with me OVER TEXT! AGAIN! How could he do this to me again Sakura? Doesn’t he know how much I love him? I let him take pictures with me without make-up on!” Ino cried dramatically and threw her arms around the pink-haired girl's shoulders. 

Sakura, used to Ino’s drama, started gently rubbing the blonde teens back in soothing circles. 

**“Why is Ino such a drama queen? Can’t she just find a different guy already and stop dating Sasuke?”** Sakura’s inner voice chose this moment to intrude over her friend’s crying.

“Sakura, if you could put Ino down in her chair, I would  _ love _ to start my lesson.” Anko Sensei said casually from her desk, popping a bean bun in her mouth and stretching her crossed legs out on the desk. 

Sakura quickly obliged, a bit embarrassed at not realizing how full the room had gotten. She sat down in her seat and opened up a spiral notebook to start taking notes on the Art History lecture but was relieved to see that Anko Sensei just wanted them to watch another movie about art, which was perfectly fine by Sakura. She would rather sketch out design ideas than be here anyways. History of any kind was never her greatest subject but as long as she had straight A’s, that was all that mattered. 

As soon as the film began, she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote out a note for Hinata. Folding it carefully she waited until Anko Sensei had fallen asleep at her desk to quickly place it on the edge of Hinata’s desk. 

S- I might be bringing someone new to lunch today. 

Hinata’s eyes got wide and she smiled at Sakura before scribbling back.

H- That’s fantastic! I’m sure we will all make them feel comfortable! What is their name? 

As Hinata went to pass the note back, it was intercepted by TenTen that was sitting diagonally from Sakura and her eyes were wide at the note while she scribbled out her response.

T- You mean to tell me the Cherry Blossom of Konoha has a boyfriend?! 

TenTen handed the note back to Sakura, but just as Sakura had received it, Ino’s outstretched hand appeared from where she sat in front of Sakura and reluctantly, Sakura placed the note down for Ino to read. 

Ino read the messages quickly before whipping her head around to look at Sakura with wide eyes before quickly writing a message of her own. 

I- You have a boyfriend and didn’t tell any of us?! How could you do that to us?! Aren’t we friends?! 

Ino plopped the note back on Sakura’s desk and with a sigh, Sakura read the message, realizing she was going to need to explain this in painstaking detail or the ‘Queen of Drama’ Ino wouldn’t even come close to accepting it. 

S- No, guys, he’s just a new student. I met him this morning and I promised to help him find his classes, I just thought it would be nice to bring him over to the group for lunch. No big secrets here. 

Sakura handed the note back to Ino first and let her pass it between the other two teens before it came back to Sakura. 

I- He had better be cool otherwise I’m kicking you and him out. 

T- Ino be nice, we haven’t even met this guy yet. I’ll make sure she’s on her best behavior Sakura

H- I can’t wait to meet him!

Sakura smiled at the note before tucking it inside of her bag and trying to pay attention to the rest of the film with a small smile. She found herself looking forward to seeing the gothic teen again. Something about his dark appearance and amber eyes had drawn her in and she wanted to become friends with such a unique person. 

The rest of the class flew by uneventfully until the bell chimed dismissing them from class. Sakura made her way back to the class Sasori would be waiting in and was pleasantly surprised to see him standing outside of the door with a bored expression staring off into space. 

Sakura smiled warmly and started to open her mouth to ask about Sasori’s class when she was cut off abruptly by his deep baritone voice. 

“Took you long enough,” Sasori remarked with a smirk playing on his lips while turning a lazy gaze to stare directly into her emerald eyes. 

“The bell  _ just  _ rang!” Sakura shot back indignantly while folding her arms over her large chest. 

“I’m not a patient man, Haruno. Let’s go to the next class, shall we? I believe I have sculpting next?” Sasori smirked at her, he seemed more entertained the more annoyed he made her. She huffed and started stomping off in the direction of the sculpting class that she also happened to share with the redhead behind her. 

She heard faint chuckling from behind her but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of turning around, but she did feel his warm presence a bit closer than he was before, walking behind her like a shadow. 

Suddenly she heard a crash behind her and whipped around to see Sasori being held up by his collar, roughly held against the lockers with an angry Sasuke Uchiha snarling in Sasori’s face. 

“SASUKE! PUT HIM DOWN!” Sakura shouted, grabbing Sasuke’s arm and trying to pull him away from the redhead. She looked over nervously to see Sasori’s expression was void of any emotion. 

“Sakura, this creep was stalking you if you didn’t notice, airhead.” Sasuke spits back without taking his fiery eyes away from the redhead he was holding. 

“His name is Sasori and I’m taking him to his class you fucking asshole. Put him down!” Sakura shouted and pulled on Sasuke’s arm again, trying to force him to release Sasori again. 

“What the hell are you doing showing around a creep like this? Does Ino know you’re over here hanging out with some Hot Topic reject?” Sasuke, finally releasing Sasori, turned his rage over to Sakura.

“Get over yourself Uchiha, come on Sasori.” Sakura spat back at Sasuke and grabbed Sasori’s hand and started pulling him to the sculpting class which was thankfully only a few classrooms away from where they were standing. 

Without thinking, Sakura walked immediately over to her seat in the back of the class by the window at the long two-person table with a clean spinning wheel in the middle, still gripping Sasori’s hand in her iron-grip and put down her bag before she felt shaking coming from beneath her palm. As soon as she felt the vibration, the hand was ripped out of her own and Sasori was looking at her with slightly wider eyes, confusion was written subtly on his face and one pierced eyebrow was raised in question. 

“Sorry, that was Sasuke, he’s my best friends’ boyfriend...most of the time. He’s a major dick and he makes extremely rash decisions about people all based on their appearance. Fucking asshole honestly. Are you okay?” Sakura rambled while pulling out her notebook for the class from her bag and flipping over to the next open page before finally lifting her eyes back to look at the still silent redhead whose eyebrow was still raised in question but at least he was sitting this time beside her in the empty seat. 

“I’m fine. It takes a bit more than that to hurt me, Haruno.” Sasori said lazily while looking at her with a small spark inside those amber eyes. 

Sakura’s stomach grumbled loudly, reminding her of the champion's breakfast she had this morning of toast and good ol’ oxygen. She blushed a bit and at the noise and refused to look up at Sasori, instead choosing to pull out her phone and open up her bank account to see if there was any money left or if her parents had forgotten, again.

Unfortunately for both her and her angry stomach-demon, the account read the same twenty-five cents she had seen in her account on Friday and she groaned unconsciously. She had made her toast last though the weekend the best she could but she was starting to realize her head was getting cloudy from the lack of protein. 

“Does the idea of your friend not hurting me make you that disappointed, Haruno?” Sasori asked with his chin resting on his hand, black nails perfectly polished, but still obstructing the red tattoo on his forearm. 

“No no, nothing like that. Just an annoying text.” Sakura tried to dismiss quickly, smiling warmly back at the redhead again, as her stomach made yet another loud grumble. 

“Sounds like someone’s hungry. Did you not eat before school?” Sasori asked, an edge of concern lining his deep voice. 

“No, I ate. I guess I’m just hungry, good thing lunch is after this period. I’ll show you where the cafeteria is! Oh! I almost forgot I need to work on some homework during lunch so I probably won’t stay for long.” Sakura quickly tried to explain away why she wouldn’t be able to stay with him during lunch, even if it was a lie. If she was too embarrassed to admit to her friends that she didn’t have the money to eat, she sure as heck wasn’t about to tell some guy she just met. 

“Well, since you’re still the only one here that I know, how about I just buy you lunch as a thank you and then you can run off to wherever you need to go,” Sasori responded in a tone that didn’t give Sakura any room to argue. Sakura sighed deeply and rested her forehead on the desk, peaking at the redhead from the corner of hire vision. 

“You aren’t letting this go are you?” She asked, somewhat hopeful. 

“Not a chance,” Sasori responded lazily before turning to the front of the class as the Sensei walked through the door and began the lecture. Sakura was having trouble focusing on the lecture and found her eyes and thoughts wandering over to the gothic redhead beside her. 

**“Where is this guy even from?”** Sakura’s Inner intrusively asked, but Sakura quickly realized that that might not be a terrible question. She realized she knew almost nothing about this guy sitting beside her other than his name. Sakura was determined to put an end to that during lunch. 

She barely heard the professor instructing everyone that the partner sitting beside them will be their partner for the final project at the end of the semester. Sakura’s eyes went wide and she looked over to the redhead who had his eyes still trained on the front of the room. Sculpting had never been Sakura’s best skill, neither had working in teams when a grade was involved. She started frantically taking notes on the four types of sculptures that the pair would have to create : stone carving, wood carving, bronze casting, and clay firing. According to the guideline that was slowly being passed around the room, each pair would need to choose two different types of sculpture to create, decide on a theme, and make the two different sculptures work together as well as show off the individual artistic abilities of each team member. Sakura could feel the familiar sinking feeling inside of her stomach that came any time she had doubts in her abilities to make her parents proud and achieve the best grade possible. 

The bell rang out sooner than anyone had expected, signally for the beginning of lunch. Sasori rose slowly from his seat, and raised the same pierced eyebrow at her, waiting impatiently for her to rise on her own. Slowly, Sakura stood, suddenly feeling weak and lightheaded. She was able to take a step to the side of the long black table before her vision spotted to black and she felt the ground come rushing to meet her. 

“This is gonna suck,” Sakura thought drowsily as she closed her eyes to brace for the impact of the hard tile floor. 

Surprisingly, she didn’t feel the hard cold of the tile against her face like she expected, instead, her body was pressed tightly against a firm warmth. Immediately, the smell of sandalwood and lemon enveloped her like a cushion and Sakura blinked a few times, realizing that her face was pressed against the soft mesh. Slowly, her mind began to register that she was pressed against Sasori’s chest and blood rushed to her cheeks in a hot blush. She gently pushed away, slightly awkwardly to regain her footing. 

“Um, thanks, sorry about that,” Sakura mumbled sheepishly to her shoes, not prepared to look Sasori in the eye.

“Don’t mention it, let’s get you something to eat, are you okay to walk?” Sasori still had a hand on her elbow, as if worried she would fall again. 

“Yeah, I’m good. Just tired I guess, let me show you where the cafeteria is.” Sakura smiled up at the redhead but the concern did not leave his face. She made to grab for her bag but Sasori quickly picked it up and slung the strap over his shoulder and moved for her to lead the way. 

They made it to the cafeteria without any issues and Sakura smirked at the shocked look on Sasori’s face. The “cafeteria” was just a large courtyard filled with about ten or twelve different food trucks, all with different types of cuisine scattered around the courtyard with lines of students outside each. 

“The school doesn’t exactly do anything standard, so we don’t have an actual cafeteria, just a ton of food trucks and you can sit anywhere you want on the campus. My friends and I normally sit in the gazebo from this morning, if you’d like to join us, you are more than welcome.” Sakura explained happily. She loved the food trucks, especially the ramen truck. 

“That’s definitely...unique. Well, what would you like to eat?” Sasori had recovered from his shock and turned to Sakura. 

“Oh, um, I’m not hungry, I can just meet you over at the gazebo if you remember how to get there.” Sakura smiled and waved a hand to dismiss him, she felt awkward having to depend on anyone else. 

**“Hopefully there’s some money in the bank account so we can eat before we starve to death,”** Sakura’s Inner complained. 

At that exact moment, Sakura’s stomach chose to growl again, causing both Sakura to blush and Sasori to roll his eyes. 

“Come on Haruno, I’m feeding you and that’s the end of it.” Sasori turned with a smirk and started walking toward the ramen food truck, Ichiraku Ramen. He waited patiently in the line and they ordered two pork ramen bowls. Thankfully, the cafeteria courtyard was only a short walk away from the gazebo and when they arrived, they were met by a room full of eyes, all glaring at the redhead behind Sakura. 

“What exactly is he doing here, Sakura?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again and welcome back!!! I do want to make a point of noting that we are hitting a few serious things in here that might be triggering for some. There will be talks of panic attacks and mentions of past dubious sexual consent. These are pretty brief but they will be making appearances again throughout the story!! I am flying without training wheels and did my own beta'ing! (I'm so sorry in advance, I was just excited to post.) Just like before, sound off at the bottom and leave me a comment to tell me what you think of this third installment of A Change of Heart!

“What exactly is  _ he _ doing here, Sakura?” 

The words might as well have been venom, spat out by the blond Ino who had a protective arm wrapped around Sasuke’s shoulders from where she perched on his lap. 

“This is Sasori, the new guy I wanted you guys to meet.” Sakura retorted, feeling her confidence draining away with her long-time friend's malice. 

“He attacked Sasuke! He should be in detention! What the fuck are you doing with a psycho like that?!” Ino continued to scream as if she hadn’t heard Sakura at all. She hadn’t moved from her seat in Sasuke’s lap but Sakura could see the cocky smirk on Sasuke’s face, with Ino in her cheerleading uniform and him in his football jacket, they looked like a typical pompous high school couple, which was exactly what they were, most of the time. 

“Sasuke hit him! Not the other way around! Besides, I thought he dumped you this morning, stupid pig.” Sakura retorted, angry that her friends were all silent while Ino was unjustly yelling at her about Sasori as if he wasn’t there. Sasori, with the same bored expression he had when they first met, had taken a seat on the bench beside the gazebo opening and begun eating his ramen, uncaring of the scene in front of him. 

Suddenly, Ino stood from her perch on Sasuke’s lap and angrily walked over to Sakura with fire in her sky blue eyes. 

"What is  _ wrong _ with you?" She shrieked while vigorously shaking Sakura by the shoulders. "What are you doing with that  **_thing?_ ** " she questioned with anger in her eyes. 

“Ino, l-let go of her, t-this is going a bit f-far don’t you t-think?” Hinata stuttered out, coming to grab Ino’s shoulder before the two heated teens went any further. 

“Hinata’s right, let’s just all calm down and take a seat. Sakura! You haven’t even eaten your ramen yet!” TenTen pointed to the sealed plastic ramen bowl in Sakura’s hands. Ino finally conceded and went back to her seat on Sasuke’s lap on the furthest side of the gazebo from where Sasori was sitting. Sakura took a seat beside Sasori and decided to wait just a bit longer on eating her ramen to instead introduce the group to Sasori. 

“Guys, this is Sasori, Sasori this is everyone.” She then began listing everyone in order of where they sat in the octagonal gazebo while pointing at each person in turn beginning with the person directly across from her on the other side of the gazebo’s entrance.

“We have Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Neji, TenTen, Sasuke, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Rock Lee, and of course Narut--.” Sakura was cut off by chopsticks full of pork and ramen noodles being plopped into her open mouth. She realized that her ramen bowl was no longer in her other hand and instead was being held in Sasori’s with his other force-feeding her the ramen noodles. 

“You need to eat, you fainted earlier,” Sasori responded to the question in her eyes simply while removing the now clean chopsticks from her mouth and making to grab for another slice of pork wrapped in noodles before Sakura quickly grabbed the chopsticks herself, a hot blush warming her cheeks as she continued eating the delicious food. The food was quickly filling the emptiness inside of her stomach. 

“Hold up, what does he mean ‘fainted earlier’?! Sakura! Did you not eat again?!” TenTen’s motherly instincts caught on to that a bit too quickly and her eyes were the size of saucers turning to glare at Sakura as if she meant to not eat. 

“I did eat! I had some toast this morning! I must have just been tired is all! I woke up at three this morning to finish that paper for Kakashi’s class, which he never even collected, again. I’m fine guys, honestly.” Sakura defended, having already finished her ramen. She stood up to recycle the plastic bowl and chopsticks in the bin outside of the gazebo but apparently, her response wasn’t good enough for her overprotective friends. 

“Sakura, are your parents not giving you money again? I can loan you money until they give you your deposit, I don’t mind.” Naruto offered enthusiastically. He always was so sweet in situations like this, but Sakura hated to ever owe anyone anything, and she already had allowed Sasori to buy her lunch today. Her ego couldn’t handle owing anything to anyone else. 

**“They are just trying to help, face it, your parents don’t care about you.”** Sakura’s Inner voice challenged her, trying to kick her when she was down apparently. 

_ “They do care about me, they’re just busy. When they call tonight they will give me money for lunch and be proud of how resourceful I am, you’ll see.”  _ Sakura argued back to her intrusive inner voice. 

“Naruto, that’s not necessary. My parents are calling tonight, I’ll get them to give me my allowance for the week. No biggie.” Sakura smiled brightly at her friends, hoping that that would end the argument. 

“Sakura, you said that last week, and you ate PB&J’s for a week straight. Aren’t you getting paid for the designs you’ve been giving them for their shows?” Shikamaru asked, as the always observant member of the group, Sakura should have realized he would have noticed the trend.

“It’s fine guys. Don’t worry so much.” Sakura dismissed her friend's concerns and was relieved to hear the bell ring, announcing the fourth class of the day. Sakura turned to Sasori and extended her hand for his schedule again, only to be denied while he smirked at her. 

“Not a chance, Haruno. It says gym with Gai.” Sasori didn’t let the smirk leave his face until Sasuke finally spoke for the first time since lunch began. 

“Choji, Rock Lee and I have that class too with you and Sakura, I’m sure we can show you to the men's changing room, assuming you are a man under all that makeup?” Sasuke sneered at Sasori. Sakura uneasily shifted her weight, unsure of what to do, but it would seem Sasori was perfectly able to defend himself on this one. 

“Let’s get to the changing room and I’ll show you exactly how ‘man’ I am.” Sasori retorted darkly. His voice was much darker than Sakura had heard since meeting him, and a shiver ran down her spine at the tense air between the two males. 

“Well, let’s get going, Sakura. Might as well leave the boys to their dick measuring contest.” TenTen exclaimed, wrapping an arm around her pink-haired friend and leading her toward the women’s changing room. 

After making it in just before the bell, TenTen and Hinata had waited long enough to hear all the juicy details about the new student. 

“Okay, so spill!” TenTen squealed while throwing her arms around Sakura, even Hinata looked like she was ready to pop, wanting to ask a million questions. 

“Hold on guys, I don’t know all that much about him, but he has been extremely sweet so far. He bought me lunch and caught me so I didn’t fall. I’m hoping to learn more about him but for now, he’s brand new so I’m just trying to be as nice as I can to make him feel welcome.” Sakura explained with a shrug, removing her top, showing off her pink lace bra containing her large breasts. 

“W-well, I for s-sure think he’s interesting. H-how did he catch you a-anyways, S-Sakura?” Hinata asked with a stutter, pulling off her lavender oversized shirt exposing her simple beige bra. 

“Oh yeah, I was wondering about that too,” TenTen added, almost completely changed just wearing her navy sports bra and compression leggings with a loose white tank top over the top. 

“Oh, he is my partner for my sculpting class. Sensei said something about we have to make two different sculptures using two different mediums for the final. It’s super open-ended since she wants us to pick our theme as long as it makes a cohesive project. She just wants us to show off our talents and find a way to bring two styles together. The issue is, I still don’t know his style.” Sakura responded to them while finishing tying her long hair in a high ponytail. She looked in the mirror on the wall and admired her navy blue crop top and short black cotton shorts that went just past her ass. 

“That’s perfect! That’s a whole semester of getting to know someone! Come on Sakura, you haven’t dated anyone in  _ years _ !! Maybe this guy will end that dry spell, yeah?” TenTen seemed overly excited about this idea and Sakura had to quietly admit that it had been a long time since she had dated anyone, but it was way too early on to see if Sasori was going to be the next one on that shortlist.

“You guys  _ do  _ remember he just got here right? As in, he got here today? I think it’s a bit early for all of that.” Sakura chuckled at her friend while they made their way into the gymnasium toward the multicolored bleachers. 

Almost immediately, Gai Sensei announced that they would be playing a “youthful game of dodgeball” and decided to set up the teams with a mix of men and women on both sides to keep things even. 

The teams consisted of twelve people on each side, the first team was Sasori, Hinata, Sakura, and Choji on one side and Sasuke, Naruto, Rock Lee, and TenTen on the other. Gai Sensei explained that this was just supposed to be a “youthful experience” and that everyone should do their best but try to have fun while doing it, but Sakura noticed the glare in Sasuke’s eyes that was locked on Sasori and she had a feeling this would be anything but “youthful.”

At the sound of the whistle, everyone made a run for the red balls in the middle and began wildly hurling them at each other on either side. Sakura was able to easily dodge one ball before it hit her in the side and even managed to catch one aimed at her head, successfully getting a red-haired girl with glasses out on the other team. It was an intense battle of balls flying back and forth and Sakura was momentarily distracted by glancing over and taking in Sasori’s black basketball shorts and the same black tank top, just missing the black mesh covering. She took note of how his muscles rippled beneath the skin as he effortlessly hurled ball after ball at the other team. She was so distracted, she didn’t notice the ball coming straight for her face at an alarming rate until it was too late and it had connected hard with her temple. 

Sakura’s head was whipped back at the impact and she held back the reactionary tears while she made her way over to the bleachers, holding her face. 

Suddenly, a warm pair of hands were over hers in an instant, pulling her hand down from her face and her emerald eyes met warm amber. 

“It’s going to bruise, are you alright?” Sasori asked with concern in his voice, he was crouched down beside her, lightly ghosting his long fingers over the forming lump on her head. 

“Yeah, I’m okay, I just got distracted. Go back to the game,” Sakura smiled at him, secretly not wanting his hands to leave her skin, but like she had told TenTen and Hinata earlier, she still didn’t know him nearly well enough for that. 

He nodded, concern still written on his face, before rising and jogging back to the game where he quickly whipped the ball, getting another boy from the other team out. 

Quickly, the game dwindled to just a few straggling players, Hinata had gotten out shortly after Sakura and had been worrying over the growing bruise the entire time, no matter how many times Sakura dismissed it. Sakura couldn’t help but notice though that Sasori and Sasuke seemed to only be aiming at each other, and not just that, but they were throwing the ball with the same aggression most people would use to throw a punch. 

Sakura and Hinata tried to ignore the violent boys in favor of cheering on TenTen who was still, shockingly, doing well in the game. She seemed to easily dodge the balls flying toward her and got out three more people before being unfortunately hit in the leg by a stray ball. She shrugged her shoulders and made her way over to sit with her friends as well. Choji, who had been the first one out in the game, offered everyone a large bag of barbecue chips. 

“This should be interesting,” Choji muttered, munching on a chip. 

“What do you mean by that?” TenTen asked while grabbing a small handful of chips. 

“In the locker room, Sasuke was trying to antagonize Sasori. It was almost entertaining until I heard a bit more of what was being said.” Choji replied hesitantly, looking at Sakura from the corner of his eye like he was holding something back. 

“Out with it Choji, what was he saying?” Sakura asked, still holding the side of her head, which throbbed painfully. 

“Sasuke...was calling Sasori a stalker and he...um...told Sasori if he wanted to get in your pants, you aren’t exactly the hardest girl to get in bed with...I’m so sorry Sakura I shouldn’t have told you that!” Choji immediately was very uncomfortable and had even put down his bag of chips to awkwardly try to rub Sakura’s shoulders in what he must have thought was reassurance. 

Sakura on the other hand was completely frozen to her bleacher seat. The color quickly drained from her face and a cold sweat broke out at the base of her spine. Sakura’s thoughts were in a tailspin over what exactly Sasuke meant by his words and on top of that, why he thought it was okay for him to say something like that to Sasori, even if Sasuke and most of her friend group thought it was true. 

“Sakura, we all know that that isn’t true. Sasuke’s just a dick. He probably wasn’t meaning  _ that. _ ” TenTen tried to comfort the pale-faced girl. Sakura nodded slowly, trying to push down the rising bile in her throat. She looked up again to watch the two throwing the red dodgeballs back and forth. She was very happy to see Sasuke get hit in the stomach by a ball thrown by Sasori. With a smirk, Sasori turned around and made his way over to the group and kneeled in front of Sakura leisurely. 

“How’s the head?” Sasori asked Sakura quietly, amber eyes staring into emerald ones and she hoped he had taken what Sasuke said as just mindless jeering rather than something serious. 

“Hurts like hell. I think my IQ must have dropped at least a point or two.” Sakura joked with a smile. She took in his kind face and the piercing above his eye, he was just a kind person. 

“S-Sakura, I-I th-think you sh-should go t-to th-the nurse.” Hinata stuttered, concern all over her face while she stared at the large black and blue bruise that extended from Sakura’s cheek to her temple. 

“Nah, I’m okay Hinata, little ringing in my ears but otherwise I’ll live.” Sakura smiled back at her friend while the bell rang to end the class. Sakura stood up and almost crashed into Sasori’s chest where he stood close to her front. He smirked down at her and stepped away leisurely, making his way back to the men's locker room. 

“You’re blushing,” TenTen teased while pulling Sakura in the direction of the women’s locker room to shower and change before the next class started. 

“Shut up,” Sakura muttered back, the warmth on her cheeks rising slightly. 

She stepped into the small shower stall and quickly washed off the sweat from the activity and found herself alone in the cold water with her thoughts.

_ “Why would Sasuke say that? He knows what happened last year, he knows what happened with Hidan was traumatic and nothing I could have stopped.”  _

**“Keep telling yourself that, pinky. Maybe you’ll even believe it.”** Sakura’s inner voice sneered at her and she felt herself start shaking. 

_ “I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want any of that. Hidan, he made me. I didn’t....”  _ Sakura could feel herself hyperventilating and tears streaming down her face but she couldn’t stop the internal fight between herself and her inner. She felt desperate and the panic rising in her felt overwhelming. 

**“Don’t act like a victim! He was your** **_boyfriend_ ** **after all.”** Sakura wasn’t able to catch her breath. She leaned heavily on the wall in front of her and tried to focus on calming down her panic. 

“Sakura? Hey, are you okay,” TenTen’s voice started pulling Sakura back from her panic slowly. She started trying to take deeper breaths and focus on her friend that was now kneeling in front of her. TenTen must have turned off the water and wrapped a towel around Sakura’s still shaking shoulders. 

“Hey, it’s okay. I’ve got you.” TenTen gently pulled her shaking friend to her and started using the towel to rub warmth back into Sakura’s cold form. She murmured more words of comfort while Sakura focused on taking deep, even breaths, and grounding herself back in reality. 

“Do you need me to call you out of class?” TenTen asked seriousness and concern were the only emotions on her face. Sakura shook her head slowly and allowed TenTen to help her stand. 

Silently, she made her way over to her locker and changed back into her school outfit. She felt...exposed, which was silly. She knew she wasn’t and she hadn’t felt that way in the short outfit before she left her house that morning so she tried to shove that thought down. 

She gave TenTen a small smile while they walked out of the locker room together. Hinata, TenTen had explained, had already gone on to her next class since her teacher didn’t allow for any tardiness. After exiting the locker room, the pair were met by Sasori, leaning lazily against the brick wall looking bored. 

“You kept me waiting again, Haruno. Didn’t we talk about that this morning? I hate repeating myself.” Sasori teased, a smirk showing he wasn’t serious in the least, but still, Sakura felt as if she had been chastised and flinched unconsciously. 

“Well, I had better get going,” TenTen said awkwardly, making her way to her next class of the day. 

“Sorry about that. Can I see your schedule again?” Sakura asked quietly, reaching out a hand toward Sasori who only shook his head at her with a smile. 

“Didn’t we already establish I’m not just going to give it up like that, Haruno? I have Home Economics next, apparently with Shizune Sensei. Ready to show me where to go?” Sasori teased again, but after Sakura’s panic attack, she couldn’t seem to bring herself to smile at him, or even look him in the eye. She just wrapped her arms around her chest protectively and nodded slowly. 

“Okay, let’s go.” She murmured and started walking in the direction of their shared class. 

“Hey, you look cold, put this on,” Sasori said gently, pulling a black hoodie out of his bag and handing it to her. She gratefully slipped it on, immediately feeling much less exposed and let her arms relax back down to her sides. She was quickly enveloped by the smell of sandalwood and lemon again in the oversized black hoodie that went down past her fingertips and was long enough to extend below her butt. 

“Thank you,” Sakura said quietly, she meant it. He was being so kind to her. They walked in companionable silence to Home Economics and Sakura groaned internally when she realized class must have already started because Shizune Sensei was already explaining how to properly set a table for different types of events. 

“So this is how you would set the table if you were hosting a formal event--oh Sakura! Please make your way to your seat in the back there. Mr. Akasuna, please take a seat beside Sakura, hopefully, you both can catch on quickly, there will be a quiz before you can leave. Now as I was saying--” Shizune barely glanced at the door before directing the two tardy students. 

Sakura and Sasori sat down quietly at the back table and pulled out a notebook respectively and quickly tried to catch up on what Shizune was saying at the front of the class. Table setting had always been annoying to Sakura, but thankfully, her parents had made sure she knew them all inside and out when she was younger and would set the tables for their different events. She let her mind wander while she mostly wrote from memory.

She was quickly jolted from her notes when a small folded square of paper made its way onto her notebook. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to Sasori, who had his eyes trained dutifully at the front of the class. 

She curiously unfolded the note carefully so as not to be caught passing notes and looked down at the surprisingly neat handwriting. 

_ Are you okay? You seem out of it, are you sure you don’t need to go to the nurse? _

Sakura smiled down at the note, his concern was comforting. She quickly jotted down her reply before stealthily passing the note back. 

_ Yeah, I’m okay. Just out of it. Thankfully it’s A day so after this, I just have study hall and then I can go home. I’ll probably just leave after this. _

Sasori looked down at the note with a small frown creasing his face before he wrote out his reply in the same neat handwriting as before. 

_ I have a math class after this. If you want to wait, I can drive you home. I wouldn’t feel right letting you drive yourself. _

Sakura was a bit shocked by his concern and smiled again. She tried to decide if she should reject the offer, but a ride instead of walking the half-hour home didn’t sound half bad. Besides, if he’s some kind of crazy killer, at least she won’t have to worry about that sculpture they have to work on together. 

_ Okay, meet me by the gazebo after your next class.  _

The rest of the class went on uneventfully and Sakura passed the quiz at the end with an easy ‘A’. She led Sasori to his next class and agreed again to meet him at the gazebo before walking into her study hall. 

She noticed Sasuke and Ino sitting together in the back corner making out and opted to sit beside Shikamaru and Choji who were in the middle of a game of chess. 

“Hey guys, who's winning?” Sakura asked while putting down her bag and sitting at the desk beside the pair. 

“Me, Choji just hasn’t realized it yet,” Shikamaru replied with a yawn as if to prove his point, he moved his queen diagonally. 

“Checkmate. Hand over the veggie straws.” Shikamaru said lazily with an outstretched hand. Choji, grumbling the whole time, placed the small bag in Shikamaru’s hand before crossing his arms over his chest. 

“You must have cheated.” Choji reasoned indignantly to which Shikamaru chuckled. 

“No idiot, I just am better at chess than you.” Shikamaru opened the bag and offered it to Sakura who pulled out two straws and munched on them happily. Choji didn’t even mind sharing his snacks, he just  _ hated  _ losing to Shikamaru, even if he did lose every single time he challenged the lazy teen. 

“Hey, forehead, get over here,” Ino called from the opposite side of the room, still perched on Sasuke’s lap but at least no longer attached to him by the lips. Sakura sighed and made her way over to the blonde. 

“Yeah Ino? What do you want?” Sakura asked casually, leaning against the empty desk next to her friend. 

“Where did you get that jacket? It’s not on-brand for you to wear black and especially not a jacket that big.” Ino asked, scrunching up her nose while she looked Sakura up and down. 

“Sasori loaned it to me, I was cold,” Sakura responded simply, barely catching the way Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at Sasori’s name. 

“Ewwww, from that goth dude? Jeez Sakura, are you  _ trying  _ to get murdered or something?” Ino exclaimed, waving her arms as if to exaggerate her point. 

“No, he’s honestly really sweet Ino, I think you’d like him if you gave him a chance.” Sakura defended while playing with the hem of the black oversized jacket. 

“Whatever you say Sakura. I just don’t want a repeat of that creep Hidan, okay? I never want to see you get hurt like that again.” Ino said quietly, sympathy in her blue eyes. 

“It’s okay Ino, it’s not like I’m planning on dating the guy.” Sakura tried to joke tightly. This was the second time today that Hidan had been brought up and Sakura really couldn’t handle another panic attack at this point. She hoped her friend would drop it but from the look in Ino’s eyes, she didn’t think that was likely. 

“Sakura, that’s not the point. That creep stalked you until you became his friend and then after you two started dating posted a video of you two having sex to every porn site on the internet! I know I’m acting protective, but I am worried.” Ino tried to reason with her again. Sakura shook her head gently, more to shake away the memories of Hidan than at Ino. 

“Don’t remind me. This is different Ino, I just know it.” Sakura smiled at her, willing herself to believe the words too. 

“Okay,” Ino sighed, “as long as you think it’s different, I’ll give him a shot. My party is this weekend, my parents are out so I was thinking of drinks and a sleepover with everyone would probably be the best way to kick off this lame semester?” Ino conceded and decided to change the subject to Sakura’s relief. 

“That sounds amazing right about now.” Sakura smiled back at her before making her way over to her seat to try to work on the fashion designs again from this morning. She was finding it a bit hard to stick to the concentrate and before long the bell had rung and she realized she had barely even sketched out a long flowing skirt. With a sigh, Sakura picked up her bag and walked to the gazebo, she found herself almost excited to see Sasori again and to be able to go home for the afternoon. It was a blessing to have been able to finish all of her core classes in her first two years. It meant that on her A and B days the only mandatory classes she still has to take were creative writing and gym which wasn’t nearly as terrible as some. 

She saw Sasori leaning against the gazebo looking like a dark statue with his arms crossed in front of his black mesh shirt. 

“Still up to drive me home, Akasuna?” Sakura asked, smiling brightly as she made her way in front of the redhead. 

“Of course, Haruno. Let’s get out of here.” Sasori resounded smiling back at her. 

They started walking toward the student parking lot and Sakura was a bit shocked to see the red mustang with black flames painted on the sides and hood parked at the very front of the parking spaces. 

“This is yours?” Sakura asked, but she hardly had to, the car matched his aesthetic perfectly. 

“Of course, were you expecting a pink Tesla or some shit?” Sasori joked while making his way to the passenger side to open the door for Sakura. 

She gratefully sat down on the black leather of the low seat and took in the black and red interior, admiring how nice the car did look inside. While she was examining the interior, Sasori sat down in the driver's seat and reached toward the center where Sakura realized it was a stick shift. 

“You drive stick?” Sakura asked, genuinely impressed.

“Well duh, that’s the only proper way to drive any muscle car.” Sasori smiled at her while turning his head to pull out of the parking space. Sakura realized that was probably the first genuine smile she had seen from him since they had met and felt little butterflies fluttering around in her stomach at the sight. 

“So where are we going, Haruno?” Sasori asked after pulling to the front of the school and facing the two-way road. 

“Oh, take a left. I’ll direct you, it’s pretty far down.” Sakura admitted the last part quietly. 

“Not the way I drive,” a devilish smirk crossed Sasori’s face and he suddenly floored it, shifting through the gears faster than was probably safe or legal and sped down the open road. Sakura clutched the door handle like a lifeline and let her wide eyes travel back over to the madman driving. 

**“This is seeming like less and less of a good idea.”** Sakura’s Inner admitted in a panic and Sakura was forced to agree. 

After minimal instruction, what would have been a thirty-minute walk seemed to zip by in only a few minutes. Suddenly, they were parked outside of her large house in the empty driveway. 

“You can let go of the door handle, Haruno, you’re home,” Sasori smirked, leaning languidly on the wheel looking at her. 

“I’m just waiting for my heart to catch up with me, I’m pretty sure I left it back at school,” Sakura replied sarcastically, still clutching the door handle. 

She could feel a strange level of anxiety rising in her again while she stared at the smooth, pale face. She took in the eyeliner and piercings and breathed out slowly,

“Do you want to come in?”

**Author's Note:**

> Tune in next time for another installment of **A Change of Heart**


End file.
